Jansenville is a town situated on the Sundays River in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, at the intersection of the R75 Provincial Route and the R339 Regional Route, approximately 87 km south of Graaff-Reinet.
Jansenville falls within the Dr Beyers Naudé Local Municipality and the Sarah Baartman District Municipality.
The town was laid out on the farm Vergenoegd in 1854 and proclaimed in 1855. It became a municipality in 1881. It is said to have been named after General Jan Willem Janssens (1762-1838), the last Batavian Governor of the Cape.
History
In the late 1700s, outposts of the Cape Colony, in the form of the trek boers and hunters, had reached and crossed the Sundays River.
The greater portion of what now constitutes the Jansenville district fell under Kariega (formerly known as Uitenhage). The first European to settle here was Christiaan Ernst Schutte, who obtained title to land surveyed by James Swan in June 1818, described as “Late Loan Place Vergenoegd” of 3000 morgen, and granted to C.E. Schutte in 1820. Schutte was required to pay to “The Receiver General of Land Revenue” an annual quitrent of 50 Rix dollars. Schutte later sold to Prinsloo and moved northwards, to be followed by the latter when fierce, impetuous Petrus Fourie arrived from Swellendam in 1838, to become the new owner of Vergenoegd.
His veins flowing with Huguenot industry, Fourie found the land good. The muddy waters of the Sundays spread fertile, alluvial soil along its banks. Fourie and his sons began to cultivate, and before long, one hundred morgen were under crops.
The Great North tract passed over Vergenoegd. It was used by hundreds of ox wagons en route to Port Elizabeth (officially renamed Gqeberha) and returning with merchandise. The transport riders found good pasture and ample provisions in wheat, mealies, and meat; the district was becoming populous.
In 1853, Petrus Fourie arranged for the layout and survey of about 80 erven for the establishment of a township named Alexandria in honor of Ds. Alexander Smith, NGK Minister at Uitenhage, who visited the congregation once a quarter. However, by the time the application reached the authorities at the Cape, another community near the coast had beaten Fourie to the name. Jansenville was then decided on in honor of General Janssens, last of the Dutch Governors at the Cape, and Commander of the Dutch forces at the fateful Battle of Muizenberg
In 1881, Jansenville became a municipality, and the large surrounding electoral division was named after it (returning two members to the Cape Parliament).
